Saturday, January 28, 2012

Tyranny Of The Majority II - Alexis de Tocqueville

Tyranny Of The Majority - Alexis de Tocqueville

Power Exercised By The Majority In America Upon Opinion

In
America, when the majority has once irrevocably decided a question, all
discussion ceases—Reason of this—Moral power exercised by the majority
upon opinion—Democratic republics have deprived despotism of its
physical instruments—Their despotism sways the minds of men.
It is
in the examination of the display of public opinion in the United
States that we clearly perceive how far the power of the majority
surpasses all the powers with which we are acquainted in Europe.
Intellectual principles exercise an influence which is so invisible, and
often so inappreciable, that they baffle the toils of oppression. At
the present time the most absolute monarchs in Europe are unable to
prevent certain notions, which are opposed to their authority, from
circulating in secret throughout their dominions, and even in their
courts. Such is not the case in America; as long as the majority is
still undecided, discussion is carried on; but as soon as its decision
is irrevocably pronounced, a submissive silence is observed, and the
friends, as well as the opponents, of the measure unite in assenting to
its propriety. The reason of this is perfectly clear: no monarch is so
absolute as to combine all the powers of society in his own hands, and
to conquer all opposition with the energy of a majority which is
invested with the right of making and of executing the laws.
The
authority of a king is purely physical, and it controls the actions of
the subject without subduing his private will; but the majority
possesses a power which is physical and moral at the same time; it acts
upon the will as well as upon the actions of men, and it represses not
only all contest, but all controversy. I know no country in which there
is so little true independence of mind and freedom of discussion as in
America. In any constitutional state in Europe every sort of religious
and political theory may be advocated and propagated abroad; for there
is no country in Europe so subdued by any single authority as not to
contain citizens who are ready to protect the man who raises his voice
in the cause of truth from the consequences of his hardihood. If he is
unfortunate enough to live under an absolute government, the people is
upon his side; if he inhabits a free country, he may find a shelter
behind the authority of the throne, if he require one. The aristocratic
part of society supports him in some countries, and the democracy in
others. But in a nation where democratic institutions exist, organized
like those of the United States, there is but one sole authority, one
single element of strength and of success, with nothing beyond it.
In
America the majority raises very formidable barriers to the liberty of
opinion: within these barriers an author may write whatever he pleases,
but he will repent it if he ever step beyond them. Not that he is
exposed to the terrors of an auto-da-fe, but he is tormented by the
slights and persecutions of daily obloquy. His political career is
closed forever, since he has offended the only authority which is able
to promote his success. Every sort of compensation, even that of
celebrity, is refused to him. Before he published his opinions he
imagined that he held them in common with many others; but no sooner has
he declared them openly than he is loudly censured by his overbearing
opponents, whilst those who think without having the courage to speak,
like him, abandon him in silence. He yields at length, oppressed by the
daily efforts he has been making, and he subsides into silence, as if he
was tormented by remorse for having spoken the truth.
Fetters and
headsmen were the coarse instruments which tyranny formerly employed;
but the civilization of our age has refined the arts of despotism which
seemed, however, to have been sufficiently perfected before. The
excesses of monarchical power had devised a variety of physical means of
oppression: the democratic republics of the present day have rendered
it as entirely an affair of the mind as that will which it is intended
to coerce. Under the absolute sway of an individual despot the body was
attacked in order to subdue the soul, and the soul escaped the blows
which were directed against it and rose superior to the attempt; but
such is not the course adopted by tyranny in democratic republics; there
the body is left free, and the soul is enslaved. The sovereign can no
longer say, "You shall think as I do on pain of death;" but he says,
"You are free to think differently from me, and to retain your life,
your property, and all that you possess; but if such be your
determination, you are henceforth an alien among your people. You may
retain your civil rights, but they will be useless to you, for you will
never be chosen by your fellow-citizens if you solicit their suffrages,
and they will affect to scorn you if you solicit their esteem. You will
remain among men, but you will be deprived of the rights of mankind.
Your fellow-creatures will shun you like an impure being, and those who
are most persuaded of your innocence will abandon you too, lest they
should be shunned in their turn. Go in peace! I have given you your
life, but it is an existence in comparably worse than death."